Slacker

That's what I am...at least where this blog is concerned. It's been 18 days since I've offered up a post on this page and nearly the entire month of July since I offered up anything other than a detour sign to someone else's blog. For those of you truly attentive visitors, you may have noticed that I've continued to update my sidebars on a consistent basis.

Regarding those sidebars, I beefed up my list of recently watched movies a couple weeks back. It now shows the last twenty films I've watched. In counterbalance to beefing up this sidebar, I removed the list of my most recently purchased CDs. My main motivation for this move was that I had only bought 5 albums in the preceding ten months and so my list was quite static. Coincidentally, I bought 2 more CDs ("Vena Sera" by Chevelle and "As the Palaces Burn" by Lamb of God) little more than a week after removing that sidebar.

What should soften the blow of my laziness in blogging is the fact that, be it by e-mail, phone, Facebook, MySpace or face-to-face conversation, I've kept in regular contact with nearly all the dozen or so folks that actually check this blog on a regular basis. If by chance you believe you have not received adequate compensatory communication from your truly, I encourage you to chide me publically in the "Interest Person(s)" section of this post.

I feel I owe my friends/readers some noteworthy tidbits of information after such an extended period of relative quiet. So here goes:

+ I officially have an apartment to live in during my first year of course work in Denver. I have my address already and everything, and I'll grant private request for that information if any of you should desire it (davescott82@yahoo.com). The earliest day I can move in is September 1st, so I'll be leaving Indianapolis on that day or very close to it. That means I'll still be around these here parts just a shade under 5 weeks.

+ About two weeks ago, I received my orientation packet for the Joint Ph.D Program. Orientation sessions and enrollment will be on September 7th. I also found out I have homework to complete before I even step foot on campus. The seminar that all incoming students must take requires summer reading from two books and one encylcopedia. I have all the necessary materials in my possession already and am now trying to motivate myself to go over about 600 pages of scholarly material.

+ I, like many of you, am irriatated as hell because of the sports scandals going on right now. For the last four summers, Nick Tranbarger has reciprocated my tutelage in the fine art of MMA viewership by instructing me on how to properly watch and appreciate the Tour de France. July has brought to light depressing truths about prominent figures in both sports. So much so that the pre-Tour favorite and the fella that all but had the race locked up were forced to withdraw and "ultimate fighters" like UFC 155-lb Champion Sean Sherk and the original UFC legend Royce Gracie tested positive for illegal steroids after their last respective bouts. Add on top of this a crooked ref in the NBA and Michael Vick's sadistic treatment of canines and you've got a proverbial cluster fuck threatening to swallow whole any and all credibility in professional sports. I guess we have to find consolation in the fact that a man of impeccable reputation and generous character is about to break the most venerated record in all of major league baseball.

+ I have a brief and humorous story about a kitched disaster I experienced a week and a half ago. I'll share that tale later this week.

+ There a several excellent films in the list to the right of this post. The latest Harry Potter flick was well worth the price of admission, and "The Simpsons Movie" was most entertaining even though it didn't live up to my full hopes for it. To fans of slasher movies, be you hardcore or be you casual, I highly recommend "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon." Dave Winters, one of my fellow horror buffs, recommended it to me on Thursday and I rented in Friday. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The film is what may have been created if Christopher Guest decided to make a movie about a serial killer: in other words, "Halloween" meets "Best in Show."

That is all I have for now.